Place: Ratings & Reviews

I would rate NEBC higher if the scale went past 5.0! Three reasons why; Spencer, Spencer, Spencer! I randomly stopped in to check out the store during it's first month of operation. I was blown away, couldn't believe the selection! Then a big, scruffy looking young guy(Spencer) approached me with a smile and asked how I was doing. I spent the next 2 hours discussing all things beer with this fellow afficianado of ales. NEBC has since become a weekly (or daily) destination. They have more beer than anyone else in CT. Spence keeps it real too, here are a few of the goodies you will find there; All DogfishHeads, Rogues, Smuttynose Big Beer Series, Anderson Valley, Bigfoot i(n July), Paper city Hop Monster, Hooker's Liberator, Old Marley, and Imp. Porter, Hitochino Eisbock, and sooo much more! The selection of Belgian ales is staggering: all Chimays, La Trapp, Delirium, Nostradomus, St. Bernardus, Unibroue, Orval, Corsendonk, Victory, Ommegang, and so on. If it's good and it's available in CT, Spencer will have it. If he doesn't, he will cheerfully order it. Note: Spencer stashes a lot of good barleywines, Imperial stouts, and other "big" beers. Be extra nice to him and he might show you where! Oh yeah, they sell wine and booze too.

Thanks to BA, I visited this store today and was very impressed. Very large selection of craft and micro brews in a clean enviorment. I must have looked like a deer caught in headlights, the selection is a lot to take in, but very much worth taking your time. The staff was helpful and friendly, informing me of upcoming tastings as well as pointing out some nice selections (including Southern Tier Uber Sun, Black Boss Porter, Old Rasputin, Fuller's Vintage Ale, and Gouden Carolus D'Or).

Fortunately, this store is about a 10 min drive and in the words of General Douglas MacArthur, "I shall return!".

I checked this place out after several rave reviews from other CT BAs. I drove down after work today and definitely will be coming back!
The store is located right next to Trader Joes on route one in Orange. Enter the store and it is very bright and clean. Must be a new store. The beer is to the left. The entire left wall is the beer cooler and the lineup is impressive. Rogue, DFH, Brooklyn, and tons of other tasty brews are present. The selection is best towards the front and fades to macros towards the end. But just to your right isthe aisle of beers! Mixed sixers for 10% discount and there are a ton of local and regional choices here. Not only that but a very good selection of bombers and I even saw one bottle of Utopias! As I was checking out there were some beers sitting by the register. I asked what these were for and the cashier said they were adding these to the system saw some St Bernardus and other treats here. I am sure I will stop here again since it is like 10 minutes from my work. Also the prices were very good. Cheaper than I have seen at most stores with great selection. What a great addition to the CT beer scene!

I've been shopping here for several years, and it's one of the things I miss most about moving so far from Milford. Big open store, nicely laid out with a huge wall of coolers on the left and a lengthy back row of beers. Tremendous selection; if I can't find something in the stores east of the Q bridge, I can generally count on finding it here. The coolers have a big selection of import and domestic micro by the six pack/case, and the back row has a big variety of singles that can be mixed and matched. The beers in general appear to be rotated fairly well, and the staff are pretty helpful. All of that, and it's right next door to Trader Joe's so you can load up on quality food to go with your quality beer!

Got lucky and found this place on the post road one night while shopping for couches. Its brand new, well lit and very clean store set up with big isles like most warehouse stores. Back wall of cooler doors full of beer, and a full isle dedicated to beer. They have a really nice shelf full of singles that have clearly market prices, so no suprises at the register when trying a new beer. I met Spence the beer guy and he was really cool and knowledgeable about beer and excited to talk beer which is huge in my book. He suggested a few and listened to my feedback also huge. I asked him about Wolvers Oatmeal Stout cause I couldn't find it anywhere and he grabbed me a six from the private stock in the back, all on my first visit: I felt like a regular.

Good store, good staff, good selection and good prices what more do you want.

I pull in on my way to NY city - not far off the highway at all. Big parking lot, big store, beer in the back. A long cooler with a ton of six-packs, a whole aisle of other beers, and a couple of endcaps with certain sales/themes. I went straight for the Thomas Hooker endcap and picked up some Imperial Porter, Barleywine, and everything else in stock from them. I could not give a five for selection because they did not have two things that I have been looking for - De Ranke Pere Noel and the St. Bernardus mix pack. But a very impressive selection nonetheless of locals, domestics, and imports.
All of the stock seemed well cared-for, well-organized, and dust-free.
I talked to the person working about beer a bit and he was very friendly. He even carried one of my cases out to my car. All in all a great place that I will return to when in the area.

I think I've found my 2nd home. I was going to travel 25 minutes away when I found a review on this store. A fantastic selection selection of foreign and domestic beer. A lot of beers I haven't seen before and some that I haven't seen in quite a long time.

I had to pickup a sampling of beer for an Oktoberfest party...it took me over an hour in the aisle to make up my mind. I didn't have time to look at the cooler section. I could have spent another hour browsing and making a wish list. Great place!

Heading up I-95 en route to the Extreme Beer festival in Boston last week, I got off exit 41 to first show my passengers where the PEZ plant is in Orange, and then to take in New England Beverage Company.
Spent time just crazy gawking at the coolers that run the length of the store. What the hell?? Yo, check it out, growlers from Old Burnside, East Hartford. And look at this, a litre Troutbrook Imperial Porter. Sick. As you get to the rear of the store, the beers turn from micro to macro just as you hit the rear aisle which is all beer. A good selection of New England micros (Gritty's, Atlantic Brewing, Sea Dog, Shipyard, Long Trail, Smuttynose, Harpoon, Magic Hat, Otter Creek, Budhook), some regionals (Brooklyn, Victory, and 12 varieties of Dogfish Head), and standards Anchor, Sierra Nevada and Rogue. Single beers everywhere for "make your own six pack". Hmmmmn, a Dogfish Courant, and few Punkins, some of this, some of that.
Heavier on the micros, they're a little light on the imports but they've just recently opened and it'll take some time to get there. Fantome, Cantillion, Unibroue in the house and a good full line of Sam Smith beers, 10 of them in all.
While we were mulling around, someone came by and asked, "You finding everything you need?" and Phil immediately resonded, "Do you have the Magic Hat Ravel?" and was told, "It came in this morning". Grabbed me a case (Score!!!) Ooooh, a Dogfish Festina Lente. That'll be coming with me as well.
Off to a great start here...

All I can say about this place in Orange is SPENCE...SPENCE....SPENCE!!! (BA name: Boneslice)

Not only is this a great store for all alcohol needs, equiptment, cold beer, warmed beer, etc, the beer guy is friggin awesome!!! This guy knows Sulldaddy and I so well that he takes us back to the back room for his "good" stash that he keeps only for quality beer drinkers!!!! How friggin cool is that...every beer he suggests, I end up loving! They're selection is out of this world; better than anything else I have seen. While staying in Branford, Sulldaddy and I always make this trip to visit Boneslice!!! Thanks Spence, you get me good shiznit!!!

This is my hands down first choice. Sadly I will end up at another spot closer to my home and I always question why after stopping in. The drive is worth it.

Large selection and everyone is very helpful. All one has to do is ask if you can't find what your looking for and they will order it for you and call when it is in. If they can't they are helpful to direct you to something similar you might want to try.

I can not stop in for awhile, pop in and ask for something for my husband and they remember what he likes and help me to find things for gifts or just a treat for him. Which is great when your married to someone who loves his beer and has totally different tastes than I do.

Have yet to stop in for a tasting night but am always invited and kept up to date on the what is coming in.

And if that doesn't it make it sound great then how about I have noticed they tend to sell things at a much better price.

This is my favorite all-around beer store in the greater New Haven area. Only Amity rivals its selection, and the prices are generally more reasonable here. What really stands out about NEBC is the expansive variety of cold beer available - just about every craft 4/6 pack is in their huge fridge, as well as a decent assortment of the more popular bombers (e.g., Chimay, Duvel, La Fin du Monde). The room-temp shelf of singles also provides a great selection. I've never had an employee come offer to help me pick something out (not that I was looking for their help anyway), but they are always friendly at the check-out and will sometimes start conversations about whatever beers are being purchased. Overall, a very good bottle shop.

When you enter, head to the far left wall for the refrigerated options and the far wall for the room temperature selections. In the far left corner, there are empty four and six packs to fill with individual beers.

There is a great selection of high quality beers at room temperature: single bottles, 12oz & 22oz, from all over the world. Lots of German and Belgian beers including 3 types of Corsendonk.

Growlers, four packs, six packs and 12 packs are abundant. The CT & NY breweries were very well represented also. Lots of beers not normally carried at other stores, not just the typical stuff.

The staff was friendly. There is also a huge amount of wine and alcohol.

This is my go to package store. They have a number of great/harder to find beers. From American craft beers to Belgians this store is the best I've found in CT (I think they boast something like over 700 beers or more, not sure though). Prices are pretty reasonable but yet again since I've never really found another package store with half the selection of this store so its pretty hard to compare. So if you're looking for anything from DFH, Rogue, Victory, Southern Tier, Ithaca, Weyerbacher, Thomas Hooker, Great Divide, Flying Dog, Allagash to Duvel, Samichlaus, Unibroue you'll find it all.

My only complaint may be that the beer is so fresh that I couldn't even find any vintages.

While recovering from the excitement of seeing the PEZ plant on our diversion with Mr. Slander, I was even more happy to find a place where I could get the Anderson Valley Boont Amber Ale and Oatmeal Stout I missed from California. I also scored the Ravel (though I took only 3 bottles, so Slander could have his whole case.) Also picked up an Aventinus Eisbock, some Dogfish Pumpkin and 120' IPA, Schneider-Weisse Edel-weisse, Festina.

The service? Not only did they dig the Ravels off the pallette for us, they showed us around the place and were genuinely interested in what we were looking for, and what they could do to make the place even better. They even gave us some free keychain bottle openers (oho!) They are new, and they are open to suggestion. Looks like they're on the right track so far, if you've got a car it's worth the trip.

Another find thanks to BA. New England Beverage Company is one of the better stores I have found in the state. It has the feel of a medium sized, clean, outlet store. They have a whole row of shelves to select singles in the back of the store. Lots of variety. I was able to find plenty of Thomas Hooker, Kona, and Boss beers among others. There is a great mix of foreign and domestic brews and several coolers as well. It seems like most of what is in the state, they have there. The service was friendly at the counter, although no one approached me while browsing. I do not mind that at all. The prices were a little on the cheap side. Overall, whenever I go back home to visit, I will now make a point of stopping here.

New England Beverage Company is still going strong. I stopped by yesterday and hit the Thomas Hookers and Southamptons pretty hard. There was a large selection of sixers, 12ozs, bombers, and 750s from DFH, Hooker, Southampton, Chouffe, Rogue, Paper City, Weyerbacher, Allagash, St. Bernardus, Unibroue, Victory, Long Trail, and Smuttynose. When I asked Mario if they had anything new, he showed me the Smuttynose Really Old Brown Dog Ale and the DFH Red & White.

This place has a great selection of single bottle beers and harder to find beers. It has a decent price as well for most of this stuff. The beers looked fresh enough as this is a very large place to shop for beers. The next closest place for a beer selection of this magnitude is probably down on the outskirts of New Haven. The service was excellent and I would definately recommend this place if you are going in the area and need some beer.

The most interesting thing about this place is that it is located right next to a another liquor warehouse and down the street from a Costco that sells at state minimum. The beer selction is a million times better than both which is why it is still there.

A large warehouse without the warehouse feel,I've found this place to be very good and the service excellent.This is almost all beer and wine.And they have alot of beer.This is the only place I know in CT that you can make your own 6 pack.I've seen it in other states,but not in Ct.A good selection of Belgians and other Europian beers as well as American craft beers.I think this is the best beer store in New Haven County.
P.S. They had Victory's Storm King Stout early,two thumbs up for that!!
and the salesman also offered to carry my beer out to my car!!
P.S.S.The only bad thing about this place is dealing with Route One traffic.

service.. they lost spencer and gained a beer guy who doesn't know much of anything.. and stinks of cigarettes. ok. fine. however, they still seem to be getting good beers (first place in the area with southampton IPA, good selection of o-fests in september, etc).. spencer was cool but not exactly the penultimate beer geek genius. he was learning and locals need to motivate this new guy in the right direction.

selection is still excellent. lots of hard-to-find belgians rivaling the selection at amity. always count on abt 12, three phils jeroboams, and a nice selection of local stuff like cooperstown, hooker, and new england. coolers are equally full of craft beer, and i was craving a cold hooker munich which i was able to procure from their freezebox.

most of the stuff there seems fresh, although i remember seeing 04 hooker o-fest singles there last june. i'd say most everything is OK, but beware the singles.. know your release dates and you should be ok.

for the area, one of the must-check locations.. usually carry some glassware and every once in a while you'll locate something 'vintage,' something you just missed at the store that sells beers a bit faster (hooker porter, for example), or something weird and new.

prices aren't bad either.. the aforementioned abt 12 750ml is one of my price gauges, and 8.99 is totally decent. ill be back.

When I didn't live in CT, I visited family and got a chance to stop by here. It was one of the few things that stayed in my memory.

Once I moved here, it was one of the first places I went to.

Great selection of six packs and mixed packs (micro, micro, imports, etc.) in the fridge; more than I've seen anywhere else in the New Haven area. An amazing selection of individual bottles in the back holds practically every popular craft brewery (especially in the New England area) and often has plenty of special/rare bottles that I can't find anywhere else.

Occasionally a dusty bottle of something very special can be found on the shelves, but they unfortunately get rid of anything that gets "too old" to make room for newer stock (which is sad to me since it's the old dusty ones that I end up buying to stick in the cellar).

The staff often appears to be unfriendly before you talk to them, but when you ask questions, they do the best they can to help you. However, they seem to be more interested in their wines than the beers.

They fortunately keep the warehouse at a good temperature, and I have never had a problem opening any bottles from there (i.e. chipped, flat, spoiled, leaking, shaken up, etc.)

It's definitely a place for anyone in the area (or even not in the area) to check out. It is a regular stop for me weekly to double check what's new. Great selection at expected prices.